5 things to know about Yukon Blonde Critical HitBack to video

Since relocating from Kelowna around a decade ago, the group comprised of Jeff Innes, Brandon Scott, Graham Jones, James Younger and Rebecca Gray has been acclaimed by major media with bigger buzz after each album.

Something of a seismic shift took place on 2015’s album On Blonde which included the breakout hit Saturday Night. That single took off and saw the group become in-demand as its sound increasingly referenced electronic and danceable pop stylings. It’s what gave the group the kind of success that meant lead singer Jeff Innes could relocate to Madrid, Spain, to do a lot of the writing with members joining him through the process. Oh, they have a studio on Galiano Island too.

Here are five things to know about the new album Critical Hit:

1:Digital dating. According to the band’s press, the 13-track record is a personal look at dating in the digital age. With titles such as Too Close to Love, Cry and Hardly Even There, you would be right to deduce that the vast majority of those dates didn’t go so well.

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2: Out of the Garage; Into the Club. If earlier material from the group was a tad grittier and often reviewed as “garage-y,” the same can’t be said for the immaculate production and hook-laden material on Critical Hit. This is music that could have come right out of the Madchester era with its heavy rhythms, synth patches and electric cowbells. Feeling Digital is ridiculously toe-tapping.

3: Lyrical depth. Sure, this album is loaded up with some seriously hum-along songwriting, but the rawness of the lyrics in songs like Emotional Blackmail — I won’t break down/to a puddle of tears/all I’ve left is dignity/and I’ll be damned if you’ll take it from me — repeatedly hits a nerve.

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4: Ritual off the Docks. After an album of mostly four minute or less tracks, the closing song is a nine minute-plus trippy strummed ballad that is somewhat reminiscent of seventies prog-rock. It’s a different direction and proves that this group can really get into a lot of different frames of mind.

5: Critical Hit tour. Kicked off May 11 in Toronto and was followed by a truly hot set at the CBC Music Festival that was recorded and is well worth a listen. They clock various Canadian dates through to the homecoming Sept. 7 — 9 at the inaugural Skookum Music Festival.

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Also in heavy rotation:

The Carters: Everything in Love (Sony)

Considering the latest album from Beyoncé and Jay-Z is part three of the power couple’s marriage documentation trilogy, it’s pretty clear where they have decided to wind up. They are the Carters; period. Any further detail of how the two sorted out their, er, various well-published pugilisms is lost behind the public declaration of stability, cash money and “making it” through it all. From the opening Apes — t to the middle finger of Heard About Us, this is a hip hop album not the slick R&B pop fans are perhaps expecting. Beyoncé is dropping rhymes not singing, the production is stunning and Jay-Z sits back a lot of time only to rise up on tracks like 713 or Black Effect. Only Summer is clean.

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Front Line Assembly: WarMech (Artoffact Records)

On the new soundtrack for Carbon Games latest edition to the AirMech universe, Bill Leeb and crew drop a dozen tracks of swooshing, skittish electronica that the group is known for. Only two minutes into the opening piece Mechvirus, a reverberating drum bit plays Ping-Pong with your brain in the headphones. By the end of the listening session, it’s more like a game of squash. Heavy and looming music for dark times … like now.

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Jupiter & Okwess: Kin Sonic (Glitterbeat)

Four years after this Congolese player dropped his well-reviewed international debut, Jupiter Bokondji is back with an album sweaty with dirty Afro-rock coming straight outta Kinshasa. If you like your guitar served in slices that cut through the songs like shards of shrapnel, bludgeoning bass that sounds like it was recorded through a blown amp held together with duct tape and assorted percussionists on a mission to tear it up, you need this. Worth it for the wicked wah-wah and pulse of Emikele Ngamo or burning Ofakombolo alone. If you are looking for psyche-garage polyrhythmic mania; here it is.

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What happens when a roots rocker known for his ability to cover the Killer’s classics with style and Jerry Lee Lewis’ younger sister get together to record? How about 13 righteous rock ‘n’ roll and whiskey-marinated honky tonk tunes that all sound like instant classics. Lewis just owns the narrator’s voice on Till Death declaring (we said till death do us part/and that’s now/cuz I’m gonna kill you/and you know I’ve got the will too) with utter conviction. She can also get swinging on the upbeat Boogie Woogie Country Gal. Fulks is a far better singer with a near George Jones-esque swoop on I Just Lived a Country Song.

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